2/15/2011 @ 9:41AM39,908 views

Get Football Out Of Our Universities

(In which I take on the football-industrial complex, and get myself in trouble) The Super Bowl is over, finally. The college football* season is over too. Now we can be spared the breathless, hyperbolic stories about football for a few months, at least until next season. The culture of football in American universities is completely out of control. It is undermining our education system and hurting our competitiveness in technology, science, and engineering. If we keep it up, the U.S. will eventually be little more than the big, dumb jock on the world stage—good for entertainment on the weekend, but not taken seriously otherwise.

Too harsh? I don’t think so. I think we need to eliminate football entirely from our universities if we want to maintain our pre-eminent position as the world’s scientific and technological leader.

Why do we need to get football out of our universities? I’ve watched over the years as football has taken an ever-more prominent role in our high schools and colleges, as football coaches have been paid ever-higher salaries, and as football staffs and stadiums have been super-sized. All of this effort goes to the care and feeding of a very small number of (exclusively) male students, most of whom get a poor education and almost none of whom succeed as professional players. Our universities are providing a free training ground for the super-wealthy owners of professional football teams, while getting little in return.

This has got to stop. The core mission of our universities is to educate our students, not to entertain them with big-time sports events. Our political leaders, and all too often our university presidents, seem to have lost sight of this fact.

So I was very pleasantly surprised when President Obama, in his State of the Union speech on January 25, put in a plea for science over football:

“We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.”

Wow, not bad! Of course, as a politician he has to support football, so he argues only that the science fair deserves equal footing with football. (Even that is pretty radical for a politician.) I’ll go a big step further: the winner of the science fair deserves far more praise and celebration than any winner of any football game. If football disappeared, we could get our entertainment from another sport, as we do every year after the football season ends. But if we stop producing scientists, other countries will make the discoveries that solve the technological, medical, and engineering problems of the future, and that form the basis for great civilizations.

Now that I’ve gotten myself in trouble with football fans (and there are many of them), let me get myself in even more trouble, with an example from my own university.

At the University of Maryland last year, the football coach fell out of favor with the athletic director, who wanted to replace him. (This despite the fact that the coach was very successful, with an overall winning record.) The problem was, he had one more year to go in his contract, and the university would have to pay him a cool $2 million if they fired him. U. Maryland doesn’t exactly have money to burn: for three years running, it has imposed furloughs on all employees and prohibited all raises, including cost-of-living increases. So you’d think that blowing $2 million to pay a coach to sit on the sidelines, and paying who-knows-how-much to hire a new coach, would be out of the question.

What a bad move. That $2 million should have been spent on, well, how about educating the students? (And don’t get me started on football coaches’ salaries – they often make 3-5 times more than their own presidents.)

Do we want our universities to be known for their football teams? Or do we want them to be known as educational powerhouses? Apparently, the U. Maryland administration is more interested in building a better football team. Not surprisingly, many of the professors disagree. I can only hope that the students would side with the professors, but I honestly don’t know.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

Football is way more than just a sport. Football, the great American sport is watched by millions of people every year. College football gets the most television attention over any other college sport. Football teaches life lessons to many young adults by teaching them real life experiences. The National Football League would not exist without college football. There is no reason whatsoever to eliminate college football from universities. Football is widely seen on television throughout the world. Whether its college football or Professional football they are both similarly popular to television. When young kids watch their favorite college team play they see themselves, wearing those uniforms with their school mascot on their chest, being a hero for the school and everyone else watching the game. Football portrays the American dream where you can be whatever you want just as long as you are truly determined. College football creates a large number of viewers every year and without it would make society duller. Football teaches many lessons about life as well. It creates an atmosphere that is equal to the real world after done with high school or college. Football shows how working together in a team which represents a society in the real world helps the team or world becomes more successful. If each player on the team does not fulfill their jobs they will be unsuccessful and lose. This is exactly like the real world where if a company does not work together and do their jobs they will not be successful and be bankrupt. Football also teaches to never quit and always try your hardest every down. If in the real world you used the ideal to not quit and always try your hardest you will be far more successful in life. Football is not just a game but an opportunity to learn unteachable, but only through experience life lessons. Another reason why football should remain in universities is because it would cause the National Football League to not exist. The NFL creates over one hundred billion dollars a year by fans. This is a huge amount of money and obviously shows that almost everybody in the united states enjoys watching football. College football helps the NFL scout the very talented players that developed in college. The NFL would most likely not exist without the training grounds of college football that helps sift the most talented players and put them in the NFL. If they still had the NFL without college football the talent level in the NFL would most likely be horrible compared to the jaw dropping talent today. The Super Bowl is the most widely watched event in all of television that is an American tradition for many families. The commercials in the Super Bowl cost millions for a small 5 minute time slot. College football helps generate the multibillion dollar industry of the National Football League. All in all you could take away college football. Think about how much more boring life would seem for students in college that already have a stressful time with their expensive tuition. They need to a place to escape and what could be better than the great American game of football where they can watch students from their school fight to give their school a better name. It is basically a controlled war and victory is celebrated more than any other sport because of the small amount of games played each season. Football brightens the lives of America.

Your article is quite intriguing. I would first like to point out that the University of Maryland is willing to spend on their football team for a reason. That reason being that they would like to be far more competitive against all other universities. I personally, am not a fanatic of football. Football is “necessary” at times. I say necessary because football is the backbone of what this country is known for. Football dates back as far as the 1900′s. We follow tradition from generation to generation. Although i am quite assured that colleges do unnecessary spending on things related to football such as this should be spent educating. Even if we eliminate college football, we would still have other sports. Society in general doesn’t exactly do as we want. For example, we elected Obama because of his “changes” he proposed that will help this nation. He passed the health care bill with over half of society not needing the bill. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter. Society spends money on other useless things for entertainment.

Dear Steven Salzberg, I had believed that this article had potential for a debate sparking, intelligent, well written article, but like another reader has expressed, I have been disappointed. Instead I was left to read a desperate plea from a person who wishes to be known as a radical, but put no thought into how to convey his message. You have provided no concrete facts and statistics and make your assumptions based purely on speculations and stereotypes. Although I do agree that it would be nice to focus a bit more on sciences from time to time, students and fans are not as obsessive as you childishly claim. Football stories do not dominate our American society, contrary to your statement, “The college football season is over too. Now we can be spared the breathless, hyperbolic stories about football for a few months, at least until next season.” Really? Are you purposefully trying to sound like a seven- year- old with a thesaurus? Although football is important to some major schools, it serves a basic, necessary purpose: school spirit. Whether the game is won or lost, everyone suffers or rejoices as a unit, giving a unified sense of belonging, essential to a college experience. Secondly, you focus on the stereotype of the brainless meathead of a jock being the key players on any decent football team, which makes you appear both appalling and laughable. The football students must maintain a certain GPA to stay on the team, even take some of the more rigorous courses, just like in high school. The schools with the best football teams- USC, UCLA, Notre Dame, Stanford, etc.- rank among the higher exclusivity rates, and thereby grants only the high achieving students admission to the school. Ergo, the colleges with successful football teams tend to produce more successful students. Finally, for those the less exclusive schools, it’s true that its students might not go on to invent the flying car or patent a time machine. However, similar to someone in love with academia, or with music, or theatrical arts, there are those in love with the game. Their passion may not be in the area that you deem acceptable, but it can give them that rush of exhilaration that I know we both have felt before, whether onstage, in a classroom, or anywhere else. Who do you think you are, saying that their drive is unacceptable? It is not you place to say that they are what is wrong with society and the educational system of the age. It’s people like you who propose bills such California’s Proposition 8, banning gay marriage because you don’t like it. People should have the right to do what makes them happy. In closing, I strongly urge you to revise your arguments, or thesis (and go to a writing class, please…), to try and write a more intellectually stimulating article. If I may be so bold, and I mean no offence, but you portray yourself as a whiney high school student who was not included enough in group activities. Football is an overall beneficial sport and is not to be condemned for rallying people together.

Steve Salzburg brings up an interesting point, part of which I agree with and disagree with. He is right on the aspects of getting students the education they have paid for. When you are spending 2 million dollars to fire a coach, I see that as wasting money that could be put to good use like Steve said, technology, science and anything else that could help the students further their education. The price to get into a college is quite high now a days and it wont be getting any cheaper any time soon. So when you learn that schools spend billions of dollars on a sport that three quarters and more of the students don’t even play, what incentive does that give to the students to go to that college. I mean these students find out that a major part of the schools budget goes to football, and then why in the world would they go to that in particular school. Students pay thousands of dollars to learn and get educated in areas of their life that they want to improve in. Not saying that football doesn’t educate students, it does, in a sports mentality kind of way; but the majority of students look into colleges want the colleges to excel their educational programs and not just football. Although, if I may say, football brings in a good profit for some schools, the biggest profit comes from students joining the college that they are accepted to because tuition is so high these days. Now if all students were educated on the fact that a majority of the schools budget goes to football, like I said earlier, how is that providing an incentive to the incoming students to join the college when they know that not much money is being put into what they want. I am a huge football fan and this is where I come to be at odds with Mr. Salzburg. The American people love the sport. Whether it is in college of professional. The sport is huge revenue for big television programs and for company’s that pays to have their product displayed in the commercials during these games. Now if even the slightest hint of wanting to get football out of colleges arose in the United States, programs like that would not let that happen even to the slightest extent. College football also provides a chance for some of the more athletic, but not as intellectual students, to get into college and get an education. These students go through high school with a tremendous ability towards the sport, football and if it was taken out of college these abilities would be put to wastes and their education could be at risk because of the opportunity a scholarship could have offered them. Now others might say, like Salzburg, that the kids don’t try in school, that they are total jocks and meatheads and don’t put any effort what so ever into their education. This is where people are wrong and I can prove it first hand. I know plenty of football players that have kept a three point five grade point average and above while playing the sport. These men are no different that an average student, just the fact that they have a great gift given to them. So when Salzburg says that he wants football out of the universities, he is saying that he doesn’t want to given special opportunities to students. He is, or seems like he is, against the help that schools provide, through football, to get students an education that they maybe could not have gotten without the sport. My last point that opposes Salzburg is, if you take out college football then what’s next? Baseball? Volleyball? It could be a number of things and without sports kids have nothing to do on their off time. It would cause a depression in the amount of kids that start sports early in life. Kids would stop playing little league baseball, for example, because they know that it will just stop after high school. Sports are a necessity in our colleges and football is one of the top three. It is not only needed for the schools but also the students.

Mr. Steve Salzberg, First of all, I would like to show my great respect for you as a Professor and Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland and as a writer at Forbes. I fear, you have touched a very sensitive matter in the American culture, since all professional football supporters, support college too. By being against football, you are being against the sport that most people entertain in this country. I am not from here, the U.S. I am from the little tiny Portugal, right next to Spain in Europe’s tail. After the European Soccer Cup been held in Portugal in 2004 and the construction of 6 huge soccer stadiums, used at its maximum only in two or three games during the championship, many Portuguese were outraged because the government had spent millions of Euros, paid by the people who pay taxes, in those stadiums. In this case, the 6 stadiums are football and its costs, the government and the money paid to build the stadiums are the universities and the money that goes to football and the many outraged Portuguese are you. What I am trying to say is that this isn’t a new problem in this problem filled world, but it is something that is starting to affect the U.S. and problems like these are not usual in this wonderful country. Now, let’s get to the point. I hate to follow the main stream but I disagree with your article. Mainly because you base your opinion mostly on the relationship cost/benefit of football. I disagree on the fact that universities spend a lot of money on football when they should be spending it in other departments of those universities for the reasons that other posters above have given, such as the fact that alumni make large donations to the universities that pay most of the teams’ costs. Since you think that the cost/benefit of football is not positive, I believe you are missing some aspects of the sport and its influence on the different colleges. To begin with, economically, yes, it might cost more money to upkeep a football team than the money that is received from it, like you said but overall, a football team is much more than just a department in an university that costs a lot of money. Football, advertises a school, which gets the school more applications and therefore that school can raise its GPA acceptance rate and therefore receive better students. Advertising also gets a lot of money for that school. If the football team became independent from the university and just used its logo, like you suggested, it wouldn’t make students want to go to that university. Football also gives the students, the alumni and the students still in there, a feeling of pride for that university, if it is a good one. Pride for the college gets them more donations and more importantly a better college experience. Speaking of college experience, if you suggest that they get football out of universities, then why not get all the other sports out too? And, a college without sports wouldn’t nearly be the same as it is with them. So football adds a big plus on students’ college experience. Most of all, football is a great opportunity for otherwise unnoticed football players to get seen by professional teams. Very important too, is the fact that many high school players can keep playing the sport they love and go to college at the same time instead of playing a few years in their youth. Going back to the main idea of the article, the point that money spent in football should be spent in the development of that university’s education quality, I believe that, for the reasons shown above, if you take that money and try to develop the math department or the physics departments you will be losing more than if you didn’t do it. It surprises me that such respectable person wrote this article, therefore, I believe that you, Mr. Salzberg, only wrote it make people stop and think about the issue and create an opinion something that is REALLY missing in this world: people stopping to think about what they are doing, how the world is behaving, and what they can do to improve it. Thank you for posting this article and thank you for reading, Francisco Carvalho. Note: Please excuse any mistakes in vocabulary, grammar and sentence building. They are due to the fact that English is not my first language but my third.

I would have to say, I think that professional football is very important to who we are as a nation, although as costly as it is, it also gives many Americans drive for various parts of their lives. As for high school and college football, I feel that it would be better to possibly un-integrate football slightly so that students are more focused on academics and schools finances are not so closely tied to it. I think a compromise such as a club team that would then lead to a career choice would be a very wise alternative to the yes or no.

Football is known as the all-American Sport. Many people enjoy watching and playing football. It is a popular sport, which is loved by many. Football is beneficial to many colleges and also the players. It contributes to some students’ choice of colleges and gives them a chance to possibly earn a scholarship. To some students, football is a second chance to attend a great school in order to receive a better education. If their grades were not satisfactory, they could be recognized and given a scholarship to attend a school. Football scholarships allow many athletes to attend their dream school that they maybe could not attend without financial assistance. Each scholarship is earned through the hard work and dedication of players. Scholarships are not handed out to talentless players; the time, effort, and pain should be rewarded. Not only does football gives students a chance of a scholarship or a chance to further their education, but football can also be beneficial to the health of the player. Football is a great way to stay in shape and to stay healthy. It is not a sport that should not be taken lightly. There is a lot of strength, endurance, and patience that goes into this sport. Practices are frequent and long. Many people enjoy playing and being able to stay in shape. Football is a strenuous exercise. Though injuries are a high risk, football allows people to stay in shape and stay healthy. So many people complain about being unhealthy and not getting enough exercise, so why should a form of exercise be taken away from players? It should not. Football should be kept in colleges for these benefits. I do not believe that football truly takes away from the education that students can receive. The funds from football do not come solely from the institution. There are many boosters, parents, and other people that help donate to football funds. There must be funds that are raised in order for players to keep playing. The money earned goes to things such as salaries and even field maintenance. The fees are paid through money earned by outside sources, not just the school. Educational programs do not suffer because of athletic programs. Colleges should be closely monitoring where their money for education programs goes, rather than focus on what football decides to do with the money that they raise. Football is beneficial to universities for multiple reasons. First, football programs bring more students to a specific school Football has the ability to ultimately decide where a person wishes to attend. If a school has an outstanding football program, one may wish to attend there in hopes to be recognized and go pro one day. In addition, football also brings in a lot of revenue. People may buy their favorite sports gear to support their team. Games bring thousands of people to a stadium, which in turn, gives the school more money. The popularity of football intrigues people and should not be ousted. If other people are worried about the cost of education, they should find a way to earn more money, instead of cutting another program.

Why is it just football that should be expelled from colleges? Salzberg says, “If football disappeared, we could get our entertainment from another sport”. This does not make sense to me because I feel that going to other sports events affects people just the same as if they were going to a football game. Steven Salzberg is saying that if football was not in colleges it would not be as bad as we might think it will be because he says we will still have all the other college sports. But what does football have that is so horrible that all the other sports do not have that will make our country’s science and tech students any worse in their learning and our scientists and tech people. I just do not understand why football of all sports will make the United States lower ranked in the world of science and tech. Football is a major part of our American culture and you cannot just eliminate it from colleges. I think the average American would be disappointed if they could not go to college and play football, go watch college football games, or turn on the television to watch some intense college football. I think if football was not in all colleges a lot of boys would not be able to get in the get the education they need because there is no football and that was their only way of getting into a university.

Dear Mr. Salzberg, I honestly see your points, and you bring up valid points. There are many negatives to having football being played in college. However, I see other more important points in support of keeping football in college. The main idea behind all the evidence for football in college is that it enhances the college experience for those in college. College should be kept in college at all levels of play. First, I must address the players. The biggest problem with the players is that if football gets taken out of college, players will have to go from high school to professional play, and that transition in football is tremendous. In other sports, such as baseball and basketball, the transition between high school play and professional leagues is immense, but since they are less physical of sports, people do not get hurt in those sports. However, if a nineteen year old went up against Ray Lewis or Troy Polamalu, the nineteen year old (who would have been in college if he could have played college ball, but instead he went professional because that was his only option) ended up with a massive concussion or a broken leg. Those years in college not only transition him from high school to professional leagues, they allow that kid to grow to his full size and bulk up enough to stand up against the Ray Lewis-es or Troy Palomalu-s of the professional football in America. Also, it gives the players time to mature as people. Those nineteen-year-old football players (as a generalization) aren’t prepared to go live on their own with hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars when they go from city to city finding every club they can to find the women to take back to their hotel room. If they have time in college, they can mature mentally and know that they can’t just sleep with every girl they want, or that they can go do drugs and drink alcohol all the time. For the players’ sake, they need college to mature physically and mentally. For the common students as well, football helps give a certain, unique atmosphere to every college and university. First, many times, the college size and feel is affected by the sports, especially football. Most of the teams with storied football histories are bigger schools. This creates a great feeling of school pride, having most of the students at the game, decked out in their school’s gear, rooting for their team. This brings the students of the school against the common enemy of the other team. Also, for those students who go to a smaller school, they can have the peaceful times where sports are not as big of a deal. However, the most important part of that idea is that there are exceptions. There are big schools that do not focus on sports, and there are small schools with great sports, so the students can find the right college for themselves. For the students, having football in college helps create the an atmosphere to each school. Having football in schools is overall a very beneficial aspect of college. Though there are bad aspects to it, there are many more positives for it. Keep football in college forever! Sincerely, Rawley Hughes